This role is an exciting opportunity to use your experience as a Methodology Editor to make a difference in the field of health care research.

As Systematic Review Methodology Editor, you will provide support, general systematic review methods advice and methods peer review as requested by Network Editorial Teams (Network Senior Editor, Associate Editor or Network Support Fellow) or field queries from the Community Support Team as needed. The role will require an understanding of methods such as the assessment of risk of bias, application of GRADE and interpretation of findings in the review. An understanding of statistical meta-analysis methods is advantageous in the role, although specialist statistical editors in the unit will be able to provide this advice.

We are looking for a self-motivated and highly organised individual who is able to work effectively and collaboratively with a diverse range of contacts across the world. The successful candidate will also have:

Familiarity with Cochrane guidance and standards on the design, conduct and reporting of systematic reviews (MECIR), including GRADE methods.

Familiarity with systematic review methods relevant to the synthesis of non-randomised evidence

An understanding of the importance of systematic reviews to clinical decision making

An ability to develop and maintain working relationships with key stakeholders

Strong organization and prioritization skills

Attention to detail

Excellent written and verbal communication skills

Ability to work methodically and accurately

A pro-active approach to problem-solving

Cochrane is a global, independent network of health practitioners, researchers, patient advocates and others, responding to the challenge of making vast amounts of research evidence useful for informing decisions about health. We do this by synthesizing research findings to produce the best available evidence on what can work, what might harm and where more research is needed. Our work is recognised as the international gold standard for high quality, trusted information.

If you would like to apply for this position, please send a CV along with a supporting statement to recruitment@cochrane.org with “Systematic Review Methodology Editor” in the subject line. The supporting statement should indicate why you are applying for the post, and how far you meet the requirements for the post outlined in the job description using specific examples. List your experience, achievements, knowledge, personal qualities, and skills which you feel are relevant to the post.

For further information, please download the full job description from here.

Deadline for applications: 12th June 2019 (12 midnight GMT)Interviews to be held on: (TBC)

This role is an exciting opportunity to use your experience as a Statistical Editor to make a difference in the field of health care research.

As Statistical Editor, you will provide statistical support and advice as requested by Network Editorial Teams (Network Senior Editor, Associate Editor or Network Support Fellow) or field queries from the Community Support Team as needed. The post holder will also provide independent statistical review of high-profile reviews, including those intended for press release. In addition to this he or she will support the implementation of established and more complex methods in Cochrane reviews and work on monitoring the quality of statistical methods and analysis in Cochrane reviews to inform priorities for training and guidance. The role will require a formal qualification in biomedical statistics, and a good understanding of methods used in meta-analysis.

We are looking for a self-motivated and highly organised individual who is able to work effectively and collaboratively with a diverse range of contacts across the world. The successful candidate will also have:

Post-graduate degree in medical statistics

Involvement in statistical research

Familiarity with statistical methods used in pairwise and network meta-analysis

Familiarity with methods used for the synthesis of non-randomised studies

Understanding of the importance of systematic reviews to clinical or policy decision-making

Familiarity with Cochrane guidance and standards on the design, conduct and reporting of systematic reviews (MECIR) and GRADE methods.

Cochrane is a global, independent network of health practitioners, researchers, patient advocates and others, responding to the challenge of making vast amounts of research evidence useful for informing decisions about health. We do this by synthesizing research findings to produce the best available evidence on what can work, what might harm and where more research is needed. Our work is recognised as the international gold standard for high quality, trusted information.

If you would like to apply for this position, please send a CV along with a supporting statement to recruitment@cochrane.org with “Statistical Editor” in the subject line. The supporting statement should indicate why you are applying for the post, and how far you meet the requirements for the post outlined in the job description using specific examples. List your experience, achievements, knowledge, personal qualities, and skills which you feel are relevant to the post.

For further information, please download the full job description from here.

Deadline for applications: 12th June 2019 (12 midnight GMT)Interviews to be held on: (TBC)

Cochrane, producer of the Cochrane Library, the world’s pre-eminent collection of high quality evidence to inform healthcare decisions, today announces the launch of a competitive tender to establish its future publishing partner from 2021 for the next decade.

Cochrane wants to identify a publishing partner that will increase the accessibility, awareness, impact and use of the Cochrane Library, and put Cochrane evidence at the heart of health decision-making globally; whilst also ensuring long-term financial sustainability of the organization, and innovation and development of other derivative products. Cochrane’s ‘Request for Proposal’ documents are available on request and proposals can be submitted up to 1 July 2019.

Cochrane’s Chief Executive Officer, Mark Wilson, welcomed launch of the tender: “This is a hugely exciting time for Cochrane. Over the past 25 years, Cochrane has transformed the way health decisions are made through the production and dissemination of our systematic reviews. But there are many challenges ahead including moves towards open access and open data publishing models, and the opportunities provided by new technology and machine-readable data to change the way we produce and deliver our content. I am confident that through this tender Cochrane will find the best publishing partner for these challenges: a partner who will help us get evidence into the hands of patients, clinicians and practitioners, researchers and policy-makers in ways that they can use it better.”

Charlotte Pestridge, Head of Cochrane’s Innovations, Research & Development Department – and responsible for leading the competitive tender - said: “We are now inviting proposals from suitable partners so that Cochrane can decide with whom, and under what terms, this unique and world-renowned product in the health and healthcare sector will be published in the future.”

Cochrane does not make clinical recommendations, instead it provides unbiased and high-quality health evidence so that health decisions, policies, and clinical guidelines can be informed by the best available evidence. ‘Cochrane Evidence in Practice’ series collects stories about clinical professionals using Cochrane evidence - the everyday healthcare professional making sure their patients and clients are getting the best care!

"I’m trained as a PA (physician assistant) and have a Master of Public Health with a focus on Health Education and Behavorial Science. As a healthcare provider I rely on resources like Cochrane Reviews to stay up-to-date on current research. This allows me to provide my patients with evidence-based information so that they can feel empowered to make the best decisions for themselves and their families. The plain language summaries are a great educational tool to provide to patients at the end of our visits to reiterate the information we’ve discussed in a language that they can understand.”

Cochrane does not make clinical recommendations. ‘Cochrane Evidence in Practice’ series collects stories about clinical professionals using Cochrane evidence. Would you like to add your story of using Cochrane evidence? Please contact mumoquit@cochrane.org to share your story.

Cochrane is made up of 13,000 members and over 50,000 supporters come from more than 130 countries, worldwide. Our volunteers and contributors are researchers, health professionals, patients, carers, people passionate about improving health outcomes for everyone, everywhere.

Cochrane is an incredible community of people who all play their part in improving health and healthcare globally. We believe that by putting trusted evidence at the heart of health decisions we can achieve a world of improved health for all.

Many of our contributors are young people working with Cochrane as researchers, citizen scientists, medical students, and volunteer language translators and we want to recognize the work of this generation of contributors as part of this series called, Cochrane’s “30 under 30."

In this series, we will interview 30 young people, 30 years old or younger who are contributing to Cochrane activities in a range of ways, all promoting evidence-informed health decision making across the world.

We will be hearing from them in a series of interviewees published over the coming months.

We're keen to hear from you. Would you like to take part in this series? Do you know someone you'd like to see interviewed? Contact lparsonson@cochrane.org. Or if you want to know more about Cochrane’s work contact membership@cochrane.org where our community support team will be happy to answer your questions.

How did you first hear about Cochrane?I was a medical student when first introduced to Cochrane through the work of my father, Adib Essali. I participated in one of his many workshops in Syria that focused on training medical students, and other healthcare professionals, on the concepts of evidence based medicine, critical appraisal of research and writing Cochrane reviews.

How did you become involved with Cochrane? What is your background?I first became involved in medical school, when the UK Cochrane centre, directed by Martin Burton, led an initiative to start Students 4 Best Evidence, a global community run by students that aims to engage students in learning about the concepts of evidence based health care.

What do you do in Cochrane?I was one of the pioneers who helped start students4bestevidence.net while I was in medical school.

I'm also an author in the Cochrane Schizophrenia Group. Currently, I'm working with a group of wonderful, Syrian medical students on 2 systematic reviews.

What specifically do you enjoy about working for Cochrane and what have you learnt?I've enjoyed working for Cochrane because I believe in their message of spreading high quality evidence to inform medical decision making. Additionally, in my interactions with various Cochrane members, I have always felt the enthusiasm and dedication to achieve this goal in the most creative and inclusive manner possible.

In working with Cochrane, I have learned to be a smarter consumer of evidence and have utilized this skill to ensure my patients receive evidence-based care.

What are your future plans?I'm currently in training to become a Psychiatrist. I plan to specialize further in Addiction Psychiatry as I'm interested in working with dual diagnosis patients, especially in emergency settings. I also hope to continue to contribute to research in my field.

In your personal experience, what one thing could Cochrane do better to improve its global profile?I believe that an online initiative to engage students is a wonderful starting point. Cochrane could expand upon this by building curriculums for health sciences schools, worldwide, to utilize in teaching students about EBM.

What do you hope for Cochrane for the future?My hope is that Cochrane will continue to grow, conflict free, continue to engage young people and continue to produce high quality evidence.

How important is it that young people get involved in Cochrane? Why is this, do you think?Very important. If evidence-based practice is instilled early on, it will increase the likelihood of producing healthcare professionals that use EBM daily to inform their practice. This will then ensure patients have access to well informed providers and thus the best available care.

What would your message be to other young people who want to get involved with Cochrane’s work but not sure where to start….?I would highly encourage their interest and recommend they start with students4bestevidence.net to learn about the basic concepts of EBM. Also, go to cochrane.org/join-Cochrane to find out different ways they can get involved with Cochrane, based on their interests.

After leading Cochrane South Asia since 2005, first as a Branch of the Australasian Cochrane Centre, and from 2008 as a standalone Cochrane South Asia Centre, Professor Prathap Tharyan is retiring from his role as Director.

Under Prathap’s leadership, Cochrane South Asia, based at the Prof BV Moses Centre for Evidence Informed Health Care and Health Policy at CMC, Vellore, has contributed enormously to Cochrane's global efforts to increase the uptake of reliable evidence to inform health decisions. In the early years of the Centre, Prathap organized several very successful annual conferences on evidence-based health care at CMC Vellore, drawing delegates from around the region to hear from internationally renowned experts. In 2014, the Cochrane South Asia Centre, also hosted Cochrane’s annual Colloquium in Hyderabad, bringing the international Cochrane community to India. Prathap has also been instrumental in working with the Indian Council of Medical Research to ensure a national subscription to the Cochrane Library from 2007-2015, which has since then been taken over by the National Library of Medicine.

Prathap’s research interests are wide, covering issues involving the ethics of clinical trials in India (as protection against commercially-focused research organizations) and promoting the conduct of pragmatic trials – reflecting a concern that research should benefit those who volunteer as participants and the wider community they come from. Through his involvement with the Cochrane Infectious Disease Group’s Effective Health Care Research Consortium, Prathap contributed substantially to important reviews, including in malaria that informed WHO guidelines and influenced policy nationally and regionally, and in the area of TB helping develop the INDEX-TB guidelines by the Ministry of Health.

A few days after the South Asia Cochrane Network was set up in December 2004, the Indian Ocean tsunami struck the region. Prathap was closely involved in relief efforts and providing support to affected villages along the coast of Tamil Nadu; Prathap later became one of the founding members of Evidence Aid in 2005, championing evidence-based approaches in humanitarian action.

For many Cochrane people, their very memorable first impression of Prathap was on stage at the 2002 Stavanger Colloquium singing the virtues of systematic reviews to REM’s iconic song, “Losing my Religion.”

Sally Green and Steve McDonald (co-directors Cochrane Australia) say: “It took a special kind of person to believe that Cochrane could take hold and flourish in a region as populous and diverse as South Asia. Prathap was undaunted by the task ahead – always optimistic, full of energy and huge reserves of perseverance. Prathap was bursting with ideas and so could immediately see where a person’s talents and enthusiasm could make a difference. He was also extremely generous with his time, forever travelling around the region to lend a hand and committing himself to one too many things. It was our good fortune to be Prathap’s guide in those early days (not that we had much guiding to do) and a privilege to spend time at his home base in the peaceful surrounds of CMC Vellore or on cramped overnight train trips from one meeting to another. You always felt with Prathap that the opportunities were boundless – Cochrane got lucky in finding someone so accomplished at exploiting them.”

Cochrane’s Chief Executive Officer, Mark Wilson, said: ‘I would sincerely like to thank Prathap for his outstanding contributions to Cochrane’s work, and for his advocacy for evidence-informed health care in India. We will miss Prathap’s insights, commitment and support to advance our work in India, and will still count on him to guide Cochrane towards a new chapter of our work with key partners in India. Prathap, we wish you all the best for the future.’

Staff at the BV Moses Centre (BVMV) will continue their activities, including training for evidence-based medicine using Cochrane methods, translation work, maintaining the South Asian Database of Controlled Clinical Trials. They will also be involved in exploring new opportunities for Cochrane in the region including the development of a Indian Cochrane Network.

Cochrane thanks Professor Prathap Tharyan for his outstanding contributions over the last 14 years and we wish him every happiness and success for the future.

Hear more about what has driven Professor Prathap Tharyan all these years to invest in evidence-informed health care: Recommended dose podcast .

The 2019 Research Excellence Awards were held at Old Government House at the University of Auckland on Tuesday, 7 May. The theme of the awards was ‘The future world of work: Te ao mahi ā mua’.

The annual Awards recognise the outstanding contributions made by researchers from those beginning their career to those whose work has earned them national and global standing. The Awards celebrate excellence at all stages of research across the faculties and institutes at the University of Auckland.

Four Research Excellence medals are presented annually, up to two for individuals and up to two for teams, who have made an outstanding contribution to one or more disciplines. Along with the medal, an individual winner receives $5,000 and winning teams $10,000. The award is judged and supported by the University Research Committee.

Cochrane Gynaecology and Fertility Group were awarded a Research Excellence Award for clinical trials and systematic reviews of fertility treatments.

Congratulations to Cindy Farquhar who led the team which consisted of Marian Showell, Vanessa Jordan, Lynn Sadler, Jane Marjoribanks, Helen Nagels and Sarah Lensen.

Specifications: Full Time, Fixed term for 2 years or a secondmentSalary: CompetitiveLocation: FlexibleApplication Closing Date: Friday 7th June 2019

This role is an exciting opportunity to use your experience as a Projects Officer to make a difference in the field of health care research.

This new role, as part of Cochrane’s Knowledge Translation (KT) department, will be responsible for supporting the delivery of specific KT activities and implementation projects; and to assist colleagues across Cochrane’s global community by providing training, tools and guidance in order for them to implement their KT activities and wider strategic plans.

The successful applicant will work across a range of project areas within the KT department that includes: supporting and coordinating the work of the KT Working Groups, support to external and internal communications, multi-lingual strategies, partnerships and advocacy, brand marketing and events, and KT training requirements.

We are looking for a self-motivated and highly organised individual who is able to work effectively and collaboratively with a diverse range of contacts across the world. The successful candidate will also have:

A degree or equivalent experience in health policy or science background

An understanding of knowledge translation and experience of delivering implementation projects

Ability to work alongside varied teams in different cultural and linguistic settings

Proven experience of building productive working relationships, both internally and externally, in a geographically dispersed environment

Strong written and verbal communication skills

Ability to manage multiple projects and work assignments

Willingness to work flexibly including outside normal working hours to accommodate different time-zones, when needed, and sporadic international travel

Commitment to Cochrane’s mission and values

Cochrane is a global, independent network of health practitioners, researchers, patient advocates and others, responding to the challenge of making vast amounts of research evidence useful for informing decisions about health. We do this by synthesizing research findings to produce the best available evidence on what can work, what might harm and where more research is needed. Our work is recognised as the international gold standard for high quality, trusted information.

If you would like to apply for this position, please send a CV along with a supporting statement to recruitment@cochrane.org with “KT Projects Officer” in the subject line. The supporting statement should indicate why you are applying for the post, and how far you meet the requirements for the post outlined in the job description using specific examples. List your experience, achievements, knowledge, personal qualities, and skills which you feel are relevant to the post.

Cochrane Sweden is celebrating their 2nd anniversary. The Centre was established on the 16th May 2017 and is located in the city of Lund. It is affiliated with the Department of Research & Development / Section for HTA Analysis, Skåne University Hospital, in collaboration with the Faculty of Medicine at Lund University and with the Nordic Cochrane Centre in Copenhagen led by Karsten Juhl Jørgensen.

Over the last two years, Cochrane Sweden has been busy promoting-evidence based decision making in healthcare in Sweden. Some accomplishments, so far, have been providing learning tools on how to conduct, edit and read systematic reviews. This has led to Cochrane Interactive Learning being a part of the curriculum at the Medical Faculty at Lund University. The Centre is also actively working with key stakeholders across Sweden to assist in the use of Cochrane reviews in research and practice. Matteo Bruschettini along with his colleague Minna Johansson, and in collaboration with Cochrane Norway and Cochrane Nordic, have been touring the country giving talks at conferences and hosting workshops and seminars about Cochrane.

More recently, the Director and the Communications Consultant of Cochrane Sweden, Matteo Bruschettini and Dina Muscat Meng, have spearheaded an initiative to support anyone interested in learning about our efforts at Cochrane to have the opportunity to participate in an international exchange programme, which has been named The Cochrane International Mobility Programme. So far, the Centre has already arranged 5 exchange experiences for people interested in learning more about Cochrane evidence at Cochrane Sweden with other centres and groups in Cochrane.

Peter Brattström from Lund University visiting Cochrane Austria and learning about Cochrane methodology for his master thesis in neonatology.

Matteo Bruschettini, Director of Cochrane Sweden, says: "Two years ago, we could not expect such a positive and immediate response to the establishment of a Cochrane Centre in Sweden. Despite a huge delay compared to the other Scandinavian countries and the lack of a national subscription to the Cochrane Library, our workshops and courses have been attended by so many enthusiastic people. Moreover, we’re working at full speed, with junior and senior researchers visiting our Centre and contributing to relevant studies (a few to be published in 2019). We’re very grateful to professor Ingemar Petersson, Head of Research at the University Hospital in Lund, for his wise and generous support. In addition, we aim to further expand the successful and strategic collaboration with the Cochrane Centres in Norway and Denmark and to facilitate the launch of a new Cochrane Field in Sweden."

Cochrane is for anyone interested in using high-quality information to make health decisions. Whether you are a doctor or nurse, patient or carer, researcher or funder, Cochrane evidence provides a powerful tool to enhance your healthcare knowledge and decision making. Our mission is to promote evidence-informed health decision-making by producing high-quality, relevant, accessible systematic reviews and other synthesized research evidence.

April to June 2019, was a busy quarter for Cochrane! Here we provide some highlights of the second quarter of the year.

Cochrane is the ‘home of evidence' to inform health decision making. We are building greater recognition of our work and becoming the leading advocate for evidence-informed health care.

In Q2 we were delighted to announce that Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews Journal Impact Factor was 7.755. This means that, in 2018, a Cochrane Review was cited on average, once every 8 minutes!

Cochrane strives to a be a diverse, inclusive, and transparent international organization that effectively harnesses the enthusiasm and skills of our contributors, is guided by our principles, governed accountably, managed efficiently, and makes optimal use of its resources.

Cochrane has created eight new Networks of Cochrane Review Groups responsible for the efficient and timely production of high-quality systematic reviews that address the research questions that are most important to decision makers. In Q2 we started a video series to introduce these each team, what has happened so far and the ambition for what is to come.

Rehabilitation is a health strategy aimed at enabling people with disabilities to reach and maintain their optimal physical, sensory, intellectual, psychological and social functional levels. Rehabilitation provides disabled people with the tools they need to attain independence and self-determination.

The Cochrane Rehabilitation Field serves as a bridge between all the stakeholders in Rehabilitation and Cochrane. Cochrane Rehabilitation drives evidence and methods developed by Cochrane to the world of Rehabilitation and also convey priorities, needs and specificities of Rehabilitation to Cochrane.

Recently members of Cochrane Rehabilitation attended the World Confederation for Physical Therapy Congress in Geneva. They helped with a Indaba session on 'evidence based practice terminology, had posters, and handouts, and Cochrane's 30 Under 30 member, Joel Pollet, did an oral presentation. It was a great opportunity for Cochrane Rehabilitation to connect directly with physical therapists, many of whom were familiar with Cochrane systematic reviews and want to get involved.

The 8th May was a hub of excitement at the University of Split School of Medicine as members of Cochrane Croatia were getting ready to host their 11th Annual Croatian Cochrane Symposium. This year’s CroCoS was co-organised with the Social Sciences and Humanities Faculty of the University of Split, represented by Assist. Prof. Darko Hren.

Thanks to collaboration between Prof. Ana Marušić, Research Coordinator for Cochrane Croatia, and member of Cochrane’s Scientific Committee, and Howard White, CEO of Campbell Collaboration, the 11th Croatian Cochrane Symposium was dedicated to systematic reviews in the social sciences. Over 50 participants from all over Croatia and neighbouring Bosnia and Herzegovina had the opportunity to hear about the work of Cochrane and Campbell in promoting positive social change through the production and use of evidence synthesis.

Vivian Welch, Editor-in-Chief of the Campbell Library, Co-Director Cochrane Campbell Global Ageing and Co-convenor, Campbell-Cochrane Equity Methods Group described the many ways in which both organisations strive to create ‘better evidence for a better world’, with Campbell producing systematic reviews, plain language summaries and policy briefs in areas such as crime and justice, education, disability and social welfare. Ashrita Saran, Evidence Synthesis Officer for Campbell, presented the role of ‘evidence and gap maps’, as a visual form of knowledge brokering and a practical source of inspiration for needed research, both primary and secondary.

Helena Domeij, Project Manager and Dental Advisor, from the Swedish Agency for Health Technology Assessment and Assessment of Social Services (SBU), presented SBUs model of knowledge brokering. SBU is commissioned by the Swedish government to undertake systematic reviews within the areas of health care and social services. SBU was established in 1987 and today employs 80 people, whose main purpose is to assess interventions in healthcare and social services from a broad perspective, including medical, economic, ethical and social aspects.

This year, participants also had the opportunity to learn about the ‘why and how of scoping reviews’. This was presented by Keti Glonti, a PhD student in the ‘Innovative Training Networks Horizon 2020 Project’, who is undertaking a scoping review on the ‘roles and tasks of peer reviewers in the manuscript review process in biomedical journals’. This was further illustrated by Dr Marin Viđak, a member of Cochrane Croatia, who presented the findings from his scoping review with a focus on promoting an ethical climate to prevent scientific misconduct.

Finally, Ivana Burić, from Split, shared her experience in conducting a systematic review as part of her PhD at the Radboud University in the Netherlands, on gene expression changes induced by meditation and related practices. Although sceptical at the outset when tasked with doing a systematic review, Ivana concluded her presentation by stating that doing systematic reviews is definitely worthwhile because ˝they get published well, can create new career opportunities and can be done for free!˝

In the afternoon participants actively contributed to one of two round table discussion: ‘Promoting use of research synthesis for policy and practice’ or ‘Incentivizing researchers to do systematic reviews’. Many great ideas were heard and will hopefully be put into practice. Finally, as is tradition, two training workshops were offered to symposium participants, one on creating evidence and gap maps and the other on conducting systematic reviews.

The symposium would not have been possible without the generous support of the University of Split School of Medicine, MiRoR Horizon 2020 Project and the City of Split.

The Cochrane Review, 'Interventions for hand eczema', addresses the effects of topical and oral or injected medicines that work throughout the entire body as treatments for hand eczema when compared against placebo (an identical but inactive treatment), no treatment, inactive ingredients that help deliver an active treatment, or another treatment. The study and its conclusions will be of interest to researchers, research funders, as well as people living with this condition and patient groups representing them.

Hand eczema is an inflammation of the skin that can be caused by an allergic reaction (such as rubber chemicals) but other external factors (irritants such as water or detergents) and atopic predisposition are often important triggers. Hand eczema can cause a reduction in quality of life and lead to many work‐related problems. Various types of hand eczema exist, and different treatments with unknown effectiveness are currently used.

The review included 60 randomised trials published up to April 2018 comprising 5469 participants.

Twenty‐two studies were funded by pharmaceutical companies or were (co-)authored by employees of pharmaceutical companies. Most participants were hospital outpatients over 18 years of age with mild to severe chronic hand eczema. Treatment was usually given for a short duration, up to four months, and outcomes were mainly assessed after treatment.

Limited data are available to support the best way of managing hand eczema due to varying study quality and inability to pool data from studies with similar treatments. Corticosteroid creams/ointments and phototherapy (irradiation with UV light) are the major treatment options, although comparisons between these options are lacking.

The quality of evidence was mainly moderate, with most analyses based on single studies that had small sample sizes; therefore, some results should be interpreted with care.

Lead author Wietske Andrea Christoffers, from the University Medical Center Groningen, in the Netherlands explains, “The results of this review cannot be used to inform clinical practice with regard to the best way of managing hand eczema, especially in the long term. Most findings were from single studies with low precision, so they should be interpreted with caution. Topical corticosteroids and UV phototherapy were two of the major standard treatments, but evidence is insufficient to support one specific treatment over another. A relatively new systemic treatment (an oral retinoid called alitretinoin) for patients with severe chronic hand eczema showed clearance or almost clearance of about half the participants in three large RCTs (Fowler 2014; Ruzicka 2004, Ruzicka 2008). We found high-quality evidence that relative to placebo, people who are given alitretinoin were more likely to achieve good symptom control (investigator or participant rated). The benefit became more apparent with increased dosage (10 mg versus 30 mg).

Well-designed and well-reported, long-term, head-to-head studies comparing different treatments are needed. Consensus is required regarding the definition of hand eczema and its subtypes, and a standard severity scale should be established.”

Cochrane is made up of 13,000 members and over 50,000 supporters come from more than 130 countries, worldwide. Our volunteers and contributors are researchers, health professionals, patients, carers, people passionate about improving health outcomes for everyone, everywhere.

Cochrane is an incredible community of people who all play their part in improving health and healthcare globally. We believe that by putting trusted evidence at the heart of health decisions we can achieve a world of improved health for all.

Many of our contributors are young people working with Cochrane as researchers, citizen scientists, medical students, and volunteer language translators and we want to recognize the work of this generation of contributors as part of this series called, Cochrane’s “30 under 30."

In this series, we will interview 30 young people, 30 years old or younger who are contributing to Cochrane activities in a range of ways, all promoting evidence-informed health decision making across the world.

We will be hearing from them in a series of interviewees published over the coming months.

We're keen to hear from you. Would you like to take part in this series? Do you know someone you'd like to see interviewed? Contact lparsonson@cochrane.org. Or if you want to know more about Cochrane’s work contact membership@cochrane.org where our community support team will be happy to answer your questions.

How did you first hear about Cochrane?We got to know Cochrane via the translation project (CENTRAL and Cochrane Translation Project) once we entered the Centre.

How did you become involved with Cochrane? What is your background?We are all from an Evidence-Based Chinese Medicine background and all became involved with Cochrane via the translation project.

What do you do in Cochrane?We translate and edit Cochrane reviews into Simplified Chinese. We also help Cochrane Review Groups to translate and extract data from Chinese publications.

What specifically do you enjoy about working for Cochrane and what have you learnt?As a team, we enjoy disseminating and sharing best evidence to the world. From Cochrane, we learn useful methodology, the idea of knowledge translation, patterns of organized activities as well as effective communication.

What are your future plans?We wish to get more involved with Cochrane, including helping to generate and disseminate more Cochrane evidence with simplified Chinese translation, and more Cochrane systematic reviews. Altogether we would like to help more people with good clinical evidence.

In your personal experience, what one thing could Cochrane do better to improve its global profile?Cochrane is dong very well in the academic area, yet not that well-known among larger populations in China. Multimedia dissemination is very important for Knowledge Translation and we think informing the general population of Cochrane evidence and making Cochrane a habit, is very important.

What do you hope for Cochrane for the future?We hope Cochrane evidence could become one of the resources that people first consider looking at when making clinical decision. It would be fantastic for Cochrane to become more accessible to every one, such as much more free full text.

How important is it that young people get involved in Cochrane? Why is this, do you think?Young people are essential for forming the habit of the generation during the next decades, in practice, training as well as knowledge searching.

Why is this, do you think?The young people are currently students or starting with their research. On one hand they are the future of research and practice area with more open views, on the other hand, they will be handing over the skill and habits to the next generation.

What would your message be to other young people who want to get involved with Cochrane’s work but not sure where to start….?We suggest they start with translation as during translation and task exchange, they can learn the methodology and get familiar with Cochrane styles. There are also people working together with them so they are always able to seek help and advice. Cochrane evidence can influence the clinical decision and their own decision in the future.

Cochrane Chile is delighted to be hosting the upcoming 2019 Colloquium. It will be a great opportunity to meet and network with Cochrane contributors and users globally and to learn more about the wide usage of Cochrane evidence in decision-making at all levels.

The Colloquium will take place from 22-25 October 2019 at CasaPiedra in the vibrant city of Santiago, Chile.

Cochrane is an inclusive organization, and all are welcome to participate and contribute. But true inclusion means the participation of diverse audiences with diverse evidence needs for diverse health decisions. The theme of the 2019 Colloquium is ‘Embracing Diversity’ and the aims are:

To make Cochrane more relevant to different audiences making health decisions in varied settings

To build new partnerships and relationships, especially with difficult-to-reach audiences

To grow the global Cochrane community

To advance relevant methodological discussions to make Cochrane reviews more relevant

The 2019 Cochrane Colloquium seeks to look at diversity as an advantage rather than a disadvantage by examining linguistic, stakeholder, and methodological diversity, among other perspectives. Keynote/Plenary Sessions will address the Embracing Diversity theme.

In addition to the programme, there is no better place to experience diversity than in Chile. In 2018, Chile was recognized as the best country to visit by the prestigious Lonely Planet travel guide. This long and narrow strip of land, isolated from the rest of the world by the soaring Andes to the east, and the vast pacific ocean to the west, acts as a catalogue of natural wonders, ranging from the unearthly scenery of the world’s driest desert in the north, to the world’s largest continental ice fields in the south. In between, countless unforgettable locations, including top-of-the-list wine growing regions, the clearest skies in the world, the impenetrable wilderness of Patagonia and the enigmatic Easter island, just to name a few. Chile is nature on a colossal scale, and travel is safe and easy.

Allergic rhinitis, or hayfever, is a common condition affecting both adults and children. One suggestion for treating it is to rinse the inside of the nose with salt water and the Cochrane Review of the effects of this was published in June 2018. We asked Carl Philpott from the Norwich Medical School in the UK to tell us what he and his co-authors found.

"Allergic rhinitis is swelling or irritation of the inside of the nose caused by allergies to airborne particles, such as grass pollen or dustmite. It’s accompanied by symptoms including a blocked, runny or itchy nose, and sneezing.

Various treatments have been proposed, and some of them have been assessed in Cochrane Reviews. We looked at the use of nasal saline irrigation, which is also known as nasal douche, wash or lavage, and involves rinsing the nasal cavity with saline, or salt water. The idea is that this would work by thinning the mucus in the nose, making it easier to remove, as well as removing some of the allergy particles. People can do the rinsing for themselves, using the saline on its own, or with nasal sprays or other treatments.

We looked for any studies that had tested the effects of nasal saline irrigation alone or in combination with other things, and found 14 studies involving nearly 750 patients, about two thirds of whom were children. Five studies used what is called ’very low’ volume saline, such as nasal sprays providing under 5ml, which is less than a teaspoon full, per nostril. Two studies used low-volume, that’s between 5 and 59ml via a syringe, and four studies used high-volume solutions, more than 60ml per nostril. The solutions were either stronger, called hypertonic, or weaker, hypotonic; but there was too little data for us to be able detect any differences between the different volumes and concentrations.

In the comparison of nasal saline irrigation with no saline irrigation, we found benefits for symptom relief in both adults and children and little suggestion of any side effects, but this evidence was either low or very low quality. On the other hand, we were not able to determine whether adding nasal saline irrigation to other medical treatment improves the symptoms of allergic rhinitis compared to using those medications alone. And there is not enough evidence to know whether saline irrigation on its own is better, worse or the same as using steroid nasal sprays or antihistamine tablets.

In summary, the current evidence for this simple treatment for this common condition is not strong enough to be sure if it is worth using instead of other treatments but is probably sufficient to recommend that it is used along with other treatments as it is a cheap, safe and acceptable treatment. More evidence will be needed to say if it can be used as an alternative to treatments such as steroid nasal sprays and antihistamine tablets, so we’d like to see further high-quality studies to produce the evidence that will help people with allergic rhinitis make a well informed choice.”

Cochrane is a global independent network of researchers, professionals, and people interested in health, including healthcare consumers. Cochrane's healthcare consumers are made up from a wide range of people, including patients (or people with personal experience of a healthcare condition), health and social care service users, caregivers and family members. Also included are people who represent or are advocates for patients and carers. What unites them all is their search for high quality, unbiased information about health conditions and treatments.

Professor Clive E Adams, Co-cordinating Editor of Cochrane Schizophrenia, shares memories of Tony Joy and his valuable contributions made to Cochrane Reviews as a consumer.

Maybe it was 1993. I am not sure. Iain Chalmers sent along this quizzical, unremittingly dogged, intelligent, kind and fun UK Midlands businessman. He had an interest in schizophrenia and wanted to help. We had recently published a blockbuster review (new vs old drug) and were rather pleased with the product – smug, even. Tony lay/peer reviewed it and went straight to the key outcome – a 20% shift on the foremost scale in schizophrenia. He asked “what does that mean?”, “can you put it into words?”. We did not know or how. Our bubble burst. It was quite some time later, still troubled by our deficiencies, that I was able to meet up with the senior US professor linked to that scale and asked her Tony’s question. She immediately saw his point and was kind enough to define that extent of change as “pissing in the wind”. This was a good lesson for Cochrane Schizophrenia to learn.

But Tony wanted to do a review. I think I remember him saying he had once been a salmon fisherman off Canada. Anyway, Tony believed in fish oils. Gee – there is nothing worse than a lovely, energetic, but honestly, openly, biased lay reviewer! We teamed him up with a medic and an historian of the fishing industry (it could only be Oxford!). This was the early days of Cochrane. Would good methods hold out against a tsunami of Tony’s well-meaning bias? His bright intelligence enjoyed the systematic approach. Tony was self[bias]-aware but trusted the methods and those methods, although certainly tested, proved robust. Again, a good lesson for us to learn. Tony continued to hold out hope that the big randomised trial would come along to prove that fish oil really did cure schizophrenia.

Finally, Tony suggested his daughter as a volunteer. She then became reviewer and finally - now Claire Irving – the Managing Editor of Cochrane Schizophrenia.

Some years ago, on receiving his diagnosis of prostate CA, Tony sought the foremost experts, the best evidence and, where there were gaps in the evidence, the randomised trials to participate in. However, after a sudden deterioration in the last weeks, Tony died peacefully on 30th April 2019. There are few folk I have known so little, but owe so much to. So, so many with schizophrenia across the earth have their care nearer that suggested by the best evidence because of the kind, pragmatic, real-world input of Tony Joy.

'Cochrane exists so that healthcare decisions get better.’ That is the first sentence of our Strategy to 2020 that aims to put Cochrane evidence at the heart of health decision-making all over the world. Here’s a look back at some key highlights of our work in the first quarter of 2019, from January to March.

Cochrane began preparations for its annual flagship event, Cochrane’s Colloquium in Santiago, Chile 22-25 October, 2019. During this time, many Cochrane contributors submitted abstracts as part of the scientific programme, this year ‘embracing diversity’. We also opened the call for hosts for the second Global Evidence Summit in 2021, a multi-disciplinary and cross-cultural event to exchange ideas about how we best produce, summarize and disseminate evidence to inform policy and practice, and using that evidence to improve people’s lives across the world.

While we published many systematic reviews in Q1, we highlighted 10 Cochrane Reviews with a feature news item on our website, an interview with the author, or a press release. We had 1,987 pieces of global media coverage in Q1 2019.

Many clinical areas, diseases, and conditions have annual global awareness days. These are important moments to shine the spotlight on available Cochrane evidence related to this important health topic. Since January 2019, we have disseminated Cochrane evidence as part of the following global health campaigns:

Cochrane podcast offers a short summary of a recent Cochrane review from the authors themselves. They have been recorded in 33 languages and are brief, allowing everyone from healthcare professionals to patients and families to hear the latest Cochrane evidence in under five minutes. In Q1 2019, we published 11 new English podcasts and 36 podcasts were translated and recorded in 6 languages. You can view and search our entire catalogue of hundreds of podcasts or subscribe via iTunes for the latest updates.

Cochrane does not make clinical recommendations, instead it provides unbiased and high-quality health evidence so that health decisions, policies, and clinical guidelines can be informed by the best available evidence. ‘Cochrane Evidence in Everyday Life’ series collects stories about individuals, families, and carers making health decisions based on Cochrane evidence. Each piece in the series collects stories around the personal impact that one Cochrane Review has made.

"My name is Netzahualpilli Delgado. As pediatrician and professor of evidence based dentistry in our faculty at University of Guadalajara in México, many parents of our pediatric patients had expressed the concerns about safety and effectiveness of fluoride toothpaste for their children daily oral hygiene compared with non-fluoride toothpaste. A comprehensive systematic review of fluoride tooth pastes formulations by Cochrane Oral Health has helped to clear patients doubts about using toothpaste with fluoride. It also has let our dental students make decisions with evidence, raise awareness of prescribing the appropriate toothpaste by age, and the ways to help preventing caries and decay of the tooth of young children and adolescents. This Cochrane evidence is setting a greater circle of informed consumers of oral health information in México - from patients to the next generation of dentists."

Cochrane is made up of 13,000 members and over 50,000 supporters come from more than 130 countries, worldwide. Our volunteers and contributors are researchers, health professionals, patients, carers, people passionate about improving health outcomes for everyone, everywhere.

Cochrane is an incredible community of people who all play their part in improving health and healthcare globally. We believe that by putting trusted evidence at the heart of health decisions we can achieve a world of improved health for all.

Many of our contributors are young people working with Cochrane as researchers, citizen scientists, medical students, and volunteer language translators and we want to recognize the work of this generation of contributors as part of this series called, Cochrane’s “30 under 30."

In this series, we will interview 30 young people, 30 years old or younger who are contributing to Cochrane activities in a range of ways, all promoting evidence-informed health decision making across the world.

We will be hearing from them in a series of interviewees published over the coming months.

We're keen to hear from you. Would you like to take part in this series? Do you know someone you'd like to see interviewed? Contact kabbotts@cochrane.org. Or if you want to know more about Cochrane’s work contact membership@cochrane.org where our community support team will be happy to answer your questions.

How did you first hear about Cochrane?I first heard about Cochrane during my Masters degree in ‘Epidemiology and Biostatistics’ at the University of Leeds where we learnt about systematic reviews and meta-analyses.

How did you become involved with Cochrane? What is your background?I became involved in Cochrane as a review author. I started a PhD in public health and childhood obesity at Teesside University in October 2013 and quickly became involved in a series of six Cochrane systematic reviews assessing the treatment of obesity in children and adolescents, of which two formed part of my PhD thesis.

What do you do in Cochrane?I’m currently working at the Cochrane Skin editorial base as a systematic review methodologist, based within the Centre of Evidence Based Dermatology at the University of Nottingham. My role is to provide support to authors who are conducting Cochrane Skin systematic reviews and peer review all Cochrane skin protocols and reviews to ensure they meet the MECIR standards. I also work for the Centre of Evidence Based Dermatology as a research associate and part of my role is to co-author a Cochrane systematic review assessing different strategies of using topical corticosteroids in the treatment of people with eczema.

What specifically do you enjoy about working for Cochrane and what have you learnt?I really enjoy working for Cochrane because there are lots of opportunities to attend conferences and training events. There is a real community feel within Cochrane and lots of support and guidance available as both an author and an editor. When I first started my PhD in 2013, I knew very little about Cochrane systematic reviews, but over the last few years I have learnt so much and I am constantly learning about new methods and ways of working which is exciting.

What are your future plans?I still have a passion to learn more about conducting systematic reviews and would like to be involved in more reviews using complex methods such as network meta-analysis. I also still have a desire to work within the public health field, carrying on with the research I conducted during my PhD.

In your personal experience, what one thing could Cochrane do better to improve its global profile?Link up more with relevant University educational courses worldwide, e.g. Masters courses in health, to ensure students know more about Cochrane and how they can get involved.

What do you hope for Cochrane for the future?I hope Cochrane continues to produce relevant and high-quality systematic reviews on topics which are of interest to the public. Cochrane needs to ensure the key messages from each systematic review are communicated to as many people as possible using different ways of presenting evidence, ensuring what is expressed is accurate and useful to the public.

How important is it that young people get involved in Cochrane? Why is this, do you think?It is obviously very important to involve young people in Cochrane to ensure there is a future for Cochrane in the next generation and so on.

Why is this, do you think?Involving young people brings fresh and new ideas ensuring the future of Cochrane is relevant and engaging to everyone.

What would your message be to other young people who want to get involved with Cochrane’s work but not sure where to start….?Become a Cochrane member and explore the opportunities within Cochrane. Become involved in projects such as Cochrane Crowd and find available tasks at Cochrane TaskExchange. Take advantage of any available training opportunities either online or face-to-face and keep up to date by subscribing to the newsletter and following Cochrane on social media. I would also say that if you are given the opportunity to become an author on a Cochrane systematic review, it is important that you have the time and capacity to put the effort in as well as the support of co-authors who have experience conducting Cochrane systematic reviews. They are generally huge pieces of work and take a lot of hard work and perseverance to complete (but they are worth it in the end!).